Why some mothers never return from the labour ward

There was no medical doctor on duty, only a midwife and a few interns. There were no blood transfusion services, no theatre to handle an obstetric emergency. Nabukho bled to death, with the team helplessly looking on. Today, she rests in a fresh grave behind a cluster of grass-thatched houses. She left behind two young children and a newborn.

“Most women we receive are already critical referrals. Delays in surgery were costing us mothers and babies,” Dr Baifa Arwinyo, the head of obstetrics and gynaecology at Mbale Hospital, says.